Jay Ell Gee

I'm kind of addicted to the Lake Fork Magic Shad. It's pretty much the only plastic I use in the fall. Keel weighted swimbait hook with a keeper, then slow retrieve it, swim/pop, use it as a jerkbait, or even wacky rig it on a weighted wacky hook. It's beyond fun!

I fish mine on a 4/0 Gamakatsu hook. It's an EWG, has a hook keeper on the front to screw the nose into, and also has a weight on the bottom of the hook to act as a keel and keep it upright. A twitch/reel retrieve works very well. I can't believe I am telling you this... But if you tear the nose on a few... Run the body right before the first joint on a wacky jig head. Fish it along the bottom and pop it off the bottom over and over. Oh, and hold on. The hits are bone jarring.

I would pass on the skitterpop recommendation. Those lures are made of balsa and won't cast worth a flip in the wind. Ask me how I know, lol. Academy makes some H2O express poppers with rattles that absolutely tear fish up. They cast like a frog, and have much better hook up ratios, lol. You can also walk it. The constant spit will make a lot of commotion!

As K_Mac said, the XF taper can really rocket a weightless soft plastic or other small lures. A senko hardly counts as "light" when used weightless, however. I have a medium/fast abu garcia rod with my citica that can sling an unweighted senko almost as far. For many other small lures, however, the XF tip really comes into its own. For example, I do a good bit of wading for spotted bass. They don't grow to the sizes of largemouth bass, so I find myself downsizing my lures. This rod helps get those light H&H spinnerbaits a looooooooooong way across the creek! Granted, for pretty much all of my senko work, I use my MBS68MXF St Croix Mojo Bass. At 6'8, it's easy to handle and very accurate, but also allows me to pitch if the conditions warrant. It has a pretty serious taper, but is rediculously sensitive because of it. The XF taper not only allows me to throw light lures like I could only dream of with my baitcasters, but it allows me to really rip the hook out of a soft plastic when it comes time to cross eyes. The XF tip also helps when you need to simply twitch your rod tip to pop a plastic through some poopy cover. All in all, I couldn't imagine wanting less than a MH rod with an XF tip for fishing soft plastics, but since St. Croix tends to make their rods a little stiffer than they rate them, this rod performs very well. Just my .02, however. That Bucoo is a sweet rod. If it fishes according to your style, use it every second you get. Most importantly, enjoy it!

I appreciate all the kind words gentleman. I certainly see us being fishing buddies for a long time... If I can help it, anyways! I'll be completely honest with you guys... If it were up to me, I may have slept in that morning! I'm glad we got our butts up and went though. We had a blast! She is checking this thread periodically to see what people say about her, LOL. She is still very excited over the whole thing, and enjoys the forum as well. Maybe I'll have to convince her to sign up, haha.

I happen to have that exact rod my friend. Good choice. Dicks Sporting Goods and Cabelas both currently have their Shimano Sahara 2500 FD's on sale for around 50.00. It's a nice reel, normally around 85.00. The ones at Dicks are in their clearance section on the website. Ask them to order it in store for you or get one from Cabelas. I promise you, it's worth the wait if you have to order it.

Senko/Strike King Shim-e Stick, Zoom Super Hog, Berkley Havoc Pit Boss, and GM Fat Ika.

Hey everyone! Just thought I would drop in and post my very first fishing report... about my girlfriend's first bass! This past Monday morning, the little lady and I got up bright and early at 4:15 am, microwaved some sausage buscuits, and headed out the door for a little bank fishing in some canals than can be accessed from the road. We managed to wet our lines a good fifteen minutes before good light, and there were fish hitting topwater EVERYWHERE! Each hit resembled a small explosion in the quiet of the early morning, but we were striking out on both Ribbits and Pad Crashers. I was absolutely dumbfounded. I began telling her that I can't recall a single morning that I have ever skunked on a topwater frog, and after a few more minutes of casting, I just couldn't take it any more. I took out the fly rod assuming bluegill and other panfish were rising to mosquitos and bugs on the surface of the water. I got the long rod all together and tied on a spider right as we were beginning to get good light. Perfect. Low and behold, my girlfriend begins to point out a school of gar swimming inches under the surface. I felt pretty silly for mistaking the sound, but quickly realized that this would be a good opportunity for my first attempt at sight fishing! I managed to get four gar to strike the spider, and even hooked into one, but lost him as he jumped clean out of the water and shook his head, throwing my spider right into my face. We decided to hit a new canal shortly after. I rigged her up with a weighted baby brush hog in one of my favorite colors (Watermellon w/ Orange Flake) on her new rod and reel setup that she picked out. In mere moments, she was out casting into shallow waters with her blue and orange Tech Spec Elite micro-guide spinning rod and her orange Shimano Sonora. I teased her about fishing too shallow, but she spotted a bass making its way into a small depression near a fallen tree. I made my way a bit deeper and as I began to pitch my first cast, I hear her talking excitedly. As she lifts her lure from the water, a nice crab lets go of the baby brush hog and plops back into the water. After a few laughs, she joined me farther out towards the main river. As I stood on the bank pitching towards bridge pylons, my girlfriend starts commenting on how neat it was to pitch right to a target and I offered to show her how. I felt a few small ticks and set my hook, only to find out that some panfish had apparently eaten three of the four appendages from my black/blue pit boss. I traded rods with her for a second and tried to pitch with it, and tried my best to begin explaining to process to her. She follows suit and pitches toward a pylon, but it lands quite a bit short of her target. I smile a bit and pitch again to a pylon, and as soon as I close the bail on her Sonora, I hear her talking excitedly. "Ooooh, ooooh, baby, I hooked a fish!" As I approached her, I noticed the rod bending and begin to hear the drag stripping a bit. She was standing on a tree root elevated about a foot off the ground to stay out of the mud, so I offered to land her fish for her. As she swings the fish slowly to the bank, I see the bass. I could hear the excitement in her voice! This was a nice first bass! I let her lip her monster and she proceeded to pose with my St. Croix in hand, smiling and wanting to take some pictures! After a few quick snaps and letting her handle her first for just a second, we released the bass the fight another day. She said she is going to catch it again one day when it's bigger! As the morning grew hotter, we packed up for the day and went to lunch. We stopped at the local academy and she proceeded to ask me advice on some lures to get started with her bass fishing. Thirty dollars later we were out the door and on the way home. As I was on my way home that night, she made room in her tackle box (she fishes for specks and reds with her dad and brother) and had it all orgranized and ready to go before I even got home. She sent me a pic of her new organized box and posted her bass pics to Facebook after sending pics to her family. How lucky am I to have such an awesome new fishing buddy? Here are the pics of her first bass. He was definitely a fatty, and she calls him her first monster bass! We have already planned to hit the water next Monday morning, lol. I hope she lands an even bigger one!

I live in south Louisiana and we have overhanging limbs everywhere. I really need to spend some time on the water learning to do this. I'm assuming some lures skip better than others. Some experimenting is in order!

I may seriously never post in a forum again with my iPhone and autocorrect, lol. I meant if* and a white river combo

I really like the rebel mini cranks and strike king bitsy pond minnows as well. However, I'd I go somewhere strictly to fish for panfish, I generally bring my fly rod. You can get a nice redington or white tier combo from BPS for a bill, 20 bucks worth of flies and fish for months on them. It's also a blast fighting big bluegill on the fly.

And if even that fails, buy a beginner fly rod setup or get yourself some panfish tackle and chase monster bream! They can be plenty of fun on the days the bass don't bite. I'm not shy about busting out the long rod on slow days.

One thing I may recommend is to start reading the articles on the bass resource main site. Start with summer fishing. Then move to articles that discuss HOW to fish the lures that you are using. You can do a lot with what you have, and as you learn more you will gain that versatility. For example, a senko can be fished weightless on a 3/0-5/0 hook, allowing it to simply fall vertically while wiggling on the way down. This is easiest with spinning gear with an open bail, but you can feed line out of a baitcaster as well. You can then fish it as a jerk bait if need be. If that doesn't work, get some wacky rig hooks with a metal weed guard and throw that senko again. Find holes in vegetation. Run it slowly along weed lines or pads that provide shade for the bass. If that doesn't work, don't cut the hook off yet. Wacky rig a soft plastic through the body and let that flutter near the bottom. That has been killer for me at certain times... Especially with a lake fork magic shad. One last recommendation is to be there right before daylight. That and sunrise is when summer fishing is best. Throw that frog a mile and cover every square inch of water you can reach multiple times. I'm heading out and bank fishing in the morning with my girlfriend and her brother. If I find any good patterns I'll let you know, lol. Most importantly, don't give up! If all else fails, find RUNNING (moving) water and bank fish that way. Moving water will keep fish more active. That may help as well. Good luck!

Hey, no problem! Morning is KEY right now for me. I live in South Louisiana, so I am seeing conditions similar to yours. The evening and 10 pm-12 am night bite is even slow for me right now! I'm thinking that the water temps are still high from the scorching days. Morning seems to be where it's at for me. I recommend the bulky T rigged plastics over jigs because if rigged properly they come through weeds better than jigs. Good luck!

Congratulations on the catch! It will get easier, I promise. Try wacky rigging those senkos on a weighted wacky hook with a weed guard. I second frogs as well. If the bass are deep and finicky, try some bulkier soft plastics friend. Zoom Super Hogs, Havok Pit Boss, RI Sweet Beaver, or even some 10" worms! Fish them so slowly that it hurts your spirit, and I think you will get some bites!

Since I cannot find an update feature, I wanted to add for clarification that my last rod will be used for mainly soft swimbaits (LF Magic Shad,) spinnerbaits, the rare crank/popper, and possibly for treble hooked applications for speckled trout and redfish. This is the main reason that I am taking a liking to the Compre. It seems like it has a decent backbone but at the same time is rated a bit soft in flex. Would this be a good idea, or am I wrong?

Well, I took a chance and ordered a Powell Diesel rod for my first upgrade. I want to thank BASSclary for the suggestion. At 7'2, it's not overly long, it's MH (we will see how true to rating it really is when it comes in,) with an extra-fast tip, which I prefer for most pitching/flipping uses. I'm also pretty good about timing my frog strikes, so I'm hoping it will be a decent frog rod as well. As an update, I finally caved and let me friend buy an old collectible from me, and it payed for the Powell and left me with about 120 to spare. I saw a Dobyn's Savvy rod the other day and loved it, but I really can't see myself spending that much. It seemed really nice. I am now looking at some more St. Croix Mojo's, but I am concerned that it may leave me with three really stiff rods. I am also taking a liking to the Shimano Compre as well. Does anyone have any suggestions for one final rod to round out my setup?

Hello everybody! This May I had made a post looking for some advice on my first "college student budget" spinning setup (coming from using baitcasters exclusively) and got some outstanding advice here. After working and stashing away some money this summer, I have decided that I really want to upgrade my two baitcasting rods before school starts back and my hours dwindle. I am still in pretty much the same boat (budget wise) but I digress... While I am looking to upgrade my baitcasting rods, I am also wanting to keep my setup fairly versatile. I understand that I will not get the best of many worlds here, but I am just trying to do what I can for now. I guess what I am looking for here are suggestions on both action and tip speed for the two rods that I will be purchasing, as well as suggestions as to what lures to throw on which rod with the best effect. Due to the amount of slop and cover that I fish, I believe that stepping up to two medium heavy rods will be my best bet. I would prefer to keep them under 7'0 if at all possible. I bank fish with the girlfriend pretty often and anything longer is difficult to transport depending on who drives. First and foremost, I live in south Louisiana. The water is certainly not the clearest and always full of surprises. I fish in some seriously snaggy conditions, so I keep my treble hook lures to a minimum. I have been known to use a square bill now and again, but it is fairly uncommon. In general, I fish primarily single hooked rigs to remain as weedless as possible. When I am in the boat, I am typically the co-angler (with Dad or the girlfriend's dad and brother), so I really prefer not to spend my time passing valuable cover tending to snags and re-tying lures. I fish a lot of weightless Texas rigged Senkos, Ribbit Frogs/Booyah Pad Crashers (pretty much every outing, they just work so disgustingly well in south La, definitely a primary), hook weighted Lake Fork Magic Shads, Spinnerbaits (kind of my new big thing, really trying to learn these), and while I do pitch/flip jigs, my favorite method of pitching is using bulky/compact soft plastics (weighted and Texas rigged), such as the Super Hog, Pit Boss, Sweet Beaver, and Fat Ika (another primary setup). If my frog's don't produce up top, I am also extremely confident with poppers. I also do some saltwater fishing with the girlfriend's family for speckled trout and redfish, so if these rods ended up being useful there as well, all the better. However, I am more concerned about setting them up optimally for bass fishing. As for my current setup, it is as follows: Shimano Sahara 2500 FD riding a St. Croix Mojo Bass MBS68MXF. I primarily use this for weightless soft plastics as well as finesse spinnerbaits. If you believe that it can be used optimally for anything else in my list of usuals, I would gladly appreciate the feedback. My two baitcasters are both Shimano Citica 200DSV's. They ride a 6'0 Abu Garcia Conolon Premier and a 6'0 Ugly Stick, both medium with moderate action. They came with the reels and while I have been doing well with them, I am starting to see the advantages of nicer rods now that I have my St. Croix. My dad was right... once you get a nice rod, you can't go back! One thing that I do have going for me right now is the fact that I lucked out and picked up a great little job to finish out college at the local outdoor world. *cough* That being said, discounts certainly apply and I plan on taking advantage to stretch my budget. While I really would prefer to not spend another hundred dollars on a rod this time around (keep in mind I need two), it seems that I have some fantastic options in my price range: For the sake of keeping things simple, all of these rods come in at 60.00 or less when applying my discount: Abu Garcia Vendettas. I apparently missed the boat on the huge Academy clearance sale on these ( ), but we have them on sale as well. They feel and look amazing, but I am concerned about warranty issues as they are being discontinued. Bass Pro Shops Carbonlite. I can't tell too much of a difference between these and the Vendetta, to be completely honest. They do seem to be pretty sensitive, maybe a touch more so than the Abu, but I couldn't notice a huge weight difference in comparable action rods. Shimano Sellus. I could care less whether or not I have a white rod, but these certainly seemed pretty nice for the money. They have really impressed me so far. I also handled a 6'10 Field and Stream Tec Spec Elite. It was MH Extra fast with micro-guides. I really liked the rod as well but I am waiting on action/tip speed suggestions before thinking too hard on this one. If you made it this far, I really want to thank you for taking the time to read about my situation and I also thank you in advance for any information that you may offer regarding my ideal three rod setup. I'm looking to pick up my rods this week if I can get some ideas rolling. If perhaps anyone local to the Baton Rouge area in La have some decent rods lying around (or you could give me a stellar deal with shipping ), you are more than welcome to PM me as well, as long as that is allowed. Have a great week everyone, and thanks again!

For what it's worth Matt, the Academy on Seigen Lane not far from you sells a brand of cranks called H2O express (house brand.) The bluegill and craw cranks are similar in color and profile, and they really tear bass up. I still have the first ones I bought of each and they have been catching fish for over a year. They also cost south of four bucks. I would check em out next time you are in BR. P.S. The H2O Express bluegill popper is also my highest producing lure to date.

I'm going to chime in here. That Bass Pro Heat fly rod, while not a bad rod, has no business being used in ANYTHING except tournament fishing or wading very tight streams/creeks. The length on the rod is actually the longest legal lit for tournament bass fishing. It has ZERO advantages past that. You also can get away with one rod/reel for those things, but there won't be much of a fight with bream. I have a seven weight and love it, but a big bass in the weeds will make you wish you had a touch more. However, I actually like the fight, so that's up to you. An eight weight is a great suggestion, however. For what it's worth... Instead of brand naming, I'll say this: Get a MACHINED fly reel, not a pressed cast metal one. The feel of palming the drag and using the reel is amazing, and the tolerances are very tight. They also look cool! Get yourself some Costa's, a Columbia shirt, a DO NOT forget to wear a sun buff. If you can't cast you'll at least look the part! A yeti cooler to use as a casting platform is a plus as well. What was your budget again?

I'll be the first to say... If the river is pretty muddy due to runout after heavy storms, you will swear some smaller rivers don't have a darn fish in them. The tube idea is alright as long as you match your hook and tube to allow yourself to Texas rig it. Texas rigged worms and ultravibe speed crass are also sure winners. Toss a smallish weight on and drag them along the bottom. If you feel yourself bump underwater structure, wiggle your lure a bit, retrieve it, and repeat that a few times. Stanley Ribbits, poppers (i like the H20 express from academy) and buzzbaits may produce early on. If you can swing it; you'll probably catch a few more bass right at daylight. A white spinnerbait to cover water is never a bad idea either.

I haven't had a ton of issues yet, but since I am just seriously getting into fishing, I can see it becoming a problem from time to time. I also recently picked up a 7 wt fly rod with a nice reel. I just got my casting to a serviceable level and hope to land my first bass very soon. I am highly considering crimping my barbs on my flies just in case I hook myself on accident. I went out fly fishing with my bud for the first time last week and he whipped a back cast right past my head... It got me thinking to say the least!

Try pursuing them with a fly rod! It's an absolute blast.

My night time fishing experience has been pretty interesting. I couldn't buy a bite on a buzzbait or popper to save my life, but at the same time I am getting strike after strike with the Stanley Ribbits (essentially a soft plastic buzz frog.) I don't know if bass are generally spooky at night or not, but the soft gurgle of the frog seems to do it every time. I have also had success using black or black/chartreuse spinnerbaits (tandem and single large Colorado.) If your area has a lot of baitfish in the shallows at night, throw a wakebait such as a manns baby one minus or BPS "The Egg." Both lures create a wake with what is essentially a topwater rattling crankbait. It's a bit more subtle and I think it makes all the difference. Good luck!

What kind of fishing are you looking to do? My family has a bass boat but dad and I can't always coordinate schedules to take it, so my broke college student self does a bit of wading for spotted bass as well as some bank fishing (the girlfriend also loves bank fishing, yay me!). I just got a fly rod so I will definitely be hitting the ponds soon to cut my teeth in this style of fishing. Shoot me a pm and I can give you some direction for some holes. I'm Lways glad to find people to fish with, so feel free to shoot me a pm. Good luck out there! Joshua